Tom Hessert celebrates in victory lane after winning Sunday night’s ARCA Racing Series event at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds. Photo: ARCA Media
It was a one lap shoot out for the ages, and when the dust settled in overtime, ARCA Racing Series veteran Tom Hessert emerged the winner Sunday night under the lights at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds mile dirt.
“This is so awesome,” Hessert said in victory lane. “We’ve been so close on the dirt so many times…to finally win one is just really, really cool. Very special.”
Hessert overcame an overheating issue early on in the No. 25 Detour Sunglasses Toyota to earn his sixth career ARCA Racing Series victory.
“Crazy night. We overheated so bad over that first run…we were just nursing this thing. We had a really good race car. I knew if we could just cool it down, we could win it.”
Hessert also had to work especially hard to hold off Ken Schrader, Chase Briscoe and Kelly Kovski who were nose to tail with the eventual winner over the last five laps. Coming up on the white flag, the caution came out when Matt Kurzejewski spun right in front of the leaders. That set the stage for the one lap sprint to the finish.
With Hessert electing to start on the outside, he got the jump on his Venturini Motorsports teammate Schrader. However, Briscoe got underneath Schrader into turn one and pounded the back of Hessert’s rear bumper through the corner. Hessert didn’t budge on the bottom and maintained a length advantage coming to the checkered flag with Briscoe, Kovski and Schrader trailing.
ARCA officials then ruled that Briscoe jumped the start on the inside and scored the rookie in fourth in the final result. Kovski, after leading 14 laps, ended up second. It could have been much different for the local Illinois favorite, who gave up the lead on a late-race restart.
“Finishing second is cool, but I want to win one of these,” Kovski said. “I thought we had it won tonight. We had three or four car lengths, then the lapped car got us…the 48.”
Kovski indeed appeared to be on his way to victory lane but a restart with 10 laps to go put him in a predicament with a lapped car which didn’t hold the bottom well enough to accommodate the leader.
“The lapped cars really sucked out there…no respect for the leaders. I feel like it cost me a race here tonight. The lapped traffic just didn’t hold the bottom. We got out in the marbles down in two and everyone got under us. We’ll take second, but we should have won it.”
Schrader challenged for the win late in the going but settled for third.
“We started third, run third…guess we’re just a third-place guy tonight,” Schrader said. “We didn’t overheat like a lot of ’em did…that’s a good thing. But, wow, DuQuoin at night…it was wonderful.”
In fact the race marked the first Southern Illinois 100 championship stock car race ever held at night.
Briscoe was one of those cars that overheated. After a lengthy stop to cool down his Ford early on, Briscoe found himself a lap down most of the way through. However, he got the free pass, got back on the lead lap and quickly proved he was one of the fastest machines on track.
“Good day, finishing fourth,” Briscoe said. “Felt like we had the car to win. It was frustrating. They said we apparently passed before the line. We were all just going for the same spot. We got a lap down early but the team rallied back. I definitely wanted the win, but a good points day. Really cool for Tom. He’s had a lot of struggles early on this year. He’s one of my best friends…great to see him get one.”
Ryan Unzicker also saw the win slip away after leading 33 laps. Unzicker elected to stay out while all the other leaders pitted on lap 15.
“It was a stupid mistake on my part,” Unzicker said. “We should have pitted. We only do this twice a year…I’m not accustomed to taking tires…probably cost us a win. We know we can win one of these. Every year I get more and more comfortable with this car.”
Unzicker, who led laps 49 to 81, built up a near straightaway advantage before a caution flag took it away. Then he got hung on the outside while four cars slipped underneath on the restart. Despite a late-race spin that compounded Unzicker’s troubles, he still finished fifth on the lead lap.
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Menards Pole winner Grant Enfinger led the most laps, leading 39 circuits in the first half before overheating issues relegated the defending race winner to 17th in the final running order.
Mason Mitchell, Woodstock, Georgia’s Tyler Speer, Joe Cooksey, Thomas Praytor and Trista Stevenson rounded out the top ten.
The ARCA Racing Series returns to action on Saturday, Sept. 10 at Salem Speedway. For more info, visit ARCARacing.com.
ARCA Racing Series
DuQuoin State Fairgrounds – DuQuoin IL
Southern Illinois 100 – Sept. 4, 2016
1. Tom Hessert
2. Kelly Kovski
3. Ken Schrader
4. Chase Briscoe
5. Ryan Unzicker
6. Mason Mitchell
7. Tyler Speer
8. Joe Cooksey
9. Thomas Praytor
10. Trista Stevenson
11. Will Kimmel
12. Brad Smith
13. Matt Kurzejewski
14. Michael Lira
15. Mike Basham
16. A.J. Fike
17. Grant Enfinger
18. Dale Shearer
19. Con Nicolopoulos
20. Ed Pompa
21. Wayne Peterson
22. Bradley Frye
23. Richard Doheny
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